It's a punishment for returning players as well. When you used to enjoy WvW and now find that you're literally stuck playing solo because you're the only one on the map without a mount? It sucks. It really sucks. If they're going to give that kind of insane mobility to people, we should all get it from the get go. Otherwise, it's some fairly shoddy gatekeeping. I do not want to know how many people tried WvW, had no fond memories to look back upon and decided that they're simply not going to bother, because *everyone* is on a mount except for them.